D4E1 - Artmakers : Marble Painter 1.3

We are three students studying Industrial Product Design in Kortrijk, Belgium. For our subject Product Engineering we were assigned to build and develop an Art Maker for children of a local SNE school (Special Needs Education) to do handicrafts in a safe way and stimulate their creative self-development.

our Art Maker is called the Marble Painter. It is built to make patterns on textiles using various kinds of textile paint. The printing of the piece itself is done using marbles that are immersed in paint and then shaken back and forth. This way the paint gets openly coated.

To drive the system a bicycle was used. So when the child starts to pedal the mechanism gets initiated and the Marble Painter can do its work ! fun guaranteed with our "little" art machine!!

Off course some work to build but here we are to help you guys out and explain a bit clearer how we made our "machine". Every step is provided of a manual containing the assembly and needed pieces (2D Drawings).

Step 4: Subassembly of the Bike

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Step 5: Subassembly of the Wooden Frame

The wooden structure is needed as a base to attach the driving rod system. To make it as easy as possible to assemble everything we split the manual op in two parts : the right side of the frame and the left side. This wel keep a good oversight when working on the Marble Painter.

Sidenote : the first picture shows an overview of all the pieces needed to assemble the right side. the second picture shows the same for the left side.

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Step 6: Subassembly of the Rod & Extension Table

Next thing to do is the subassembly of the rod and the extension table. The rod is needed to make a connection system between the bike and the circular stencil (which need to be fastened on the extension table).

The distance between the rod and the stencil is very important and needs to be accurate to have a good working Marble Painter. Make sure the extension table can slide until the end of the frame.

The places were two nuts are used replace in fact the safety nut due to the fact that a small clearance is needed to nurse the rod spins smoothly. Also provide some blanks as shown in the pictures.

Step 7: Subassembly of the Circular Stencils

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Step 8: Assembly of the Rod to the Circular Stencils

The connection is made by a 3D - printed part which can be found in this step ( 3D - printable file). Make sure you use locknuts to clamp everthing as this is one of the most important steps to make a good working Marble Painter.

Sidenote : if you don't own a 3D - printer you can print the piece in a local 3D - hub using this link

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Step 11: Assembly of the Bike to the Rod System

Assemble the bike chain as shown on the pictures. Pay attention to the fact that your chain needs to be fixed tightly and may not bend to deeply. If the chain bends to much it might fall of the sprocket while using the machine.

You can simple do this by moving the bike more to the front or the back of the ground plate. The bike should be centered with the sprocket to get a straight runnig chain.

Step 12: Assembly of the Bike Onto the Ground Plate

If your chain is set correctly you can attach the bike to the plate .

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Step 13: Finish With Plexi Pieces

To finish of the machine some pieces of plexiglass are used for the circular stencils and the painting rack. The pieces can be lasercut easily using the file given in this step. Everything is set correctly so nothing needs to be changed anymore.

Very unique idea, not an overly complicated design. Slightly larger frame bike may make it a bit more comfortable for an adult rider, this one is a good kid size. Also a chain guard would be better. But it all comes down to the final product/Art piece....what I saw here was just a mess, no design could be seen. Just random splatters making no sense, which is something anyone could do with having to build an elaborate setup like this. When I first saw the idea my mind went to spinart from my childhood. Maybe there is a way to do that with this setup with modifications.

yeaah but we wanted to focus mainly on children but for an adult it would be nice to off course. And we also had some other ideas to make a pattern but we didn't have time enough to figure that out. But we were also thinking about things like these :)

yeah that's true but in fact the model would need some small redesigns as we tested it with the children :) we were also in a quite narrow time scheme for this as this was an assignment for school but it works really well and the kids LOVE it :) but indeed some small finishing jobs would be nice